Thursday, June 2, 2011

Breaking Down Usage of Coupons at BJ's

What? You don't use coupons at BJ's? Well you should! The best part of BJ's is that they allow you to combine BJ's coupons with MFCs. Also, they let you use multiple coupons on products that have individual barcodes. Oh whoa - I lost you there. Okay. I can break it down for you on the three different ways to combine MFCs with BJ's coupons. Here's a little picture proof of what BJ's policy is all about and how to maximize your couponage there:

One Product - Just bigger

Many products at BJ's aren't individual packages. They are just bigger boxes. Pretty much, if the individual items in the pack DO NOT have their own barcode on them, it counts as 1. Here's an example:

Take for example this new product, Magnum Ice Cream bars. BJ's has a $2 off one box and there is a MFC for $1 off one box. The BJ's box has 9 bars in it. I'm going to guess the grocery store's version is either 4 or 5 bars in the box. It's not two boxes - it's still one box, hence 1 product. I can use the BJ's $2/1 coupon and my MFC for $1/1. I could not use a MFC for $1/2 on this purchase because I am not purchasing 2 boxes - just 1 box that is bigger than the grocery store version. Get it? Good.

Using Mulitple MFCs with a quanity of 1

Okay, my next example is getting as many MFCs matched up with a quanity of 1 that there are in a package. I probably lost you there. Here:

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Okay. So on this one, BJ's has a coupon for $3 off a pack of 3 Coppertone sunscreen. Each of these 3 bottles has a barcode on them. So if you have 3 $1/1 MFCs, you can use them all on this pack - essentially, giving you $6 off this purchase. This is pretty much the best scenario you can score at BJ's.

Using MFCs with a quanitity greater than 1

Okay. So some products come with multiple products in the BJ's pack with individual barcodes - but you have MFCs with a quanity on it. Here is the picture:

In this example, BJ's has a coupon for $2 off a pack of Knorr Sides. There are 8 individual packs in this BJ's version. Unilever recently put out a coupon for $1/3 Knorr Sides. You don't have to be a genius to realize that 3 does not go into 8. But, you can use 2 of these $1/3 MFCs on this product since you are buying more than 6. You can not use 3 $1/3 MFCs on this purchase since you are not buying 9 packs. Now if you had 4 $1/2 MFCs, you could use all of those - but a lot of times, it doesn't work out like that.

So there you have it. What I think is a simple way of breaking down the BJ's coupon policy for those who may not completely understand how it works. Have any questions? Comment away!